Using Muster Rolls to Map your Ancestor’s Civil War Journey
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When you order your ancestor's Civil War compiled military service record from the National Archives, the main documents you'll find inside (if not the only documents) are the muster roll cards that the War Department filled out in the 1890s. While more or less bare of any useful genealogical information, pairing muster rolls with some background research on the movements of your ancestor's regiment will provide you with all the information you need to map your ancestor's Civil War Journey.
Think of muster rolls as attendance cards, detailing whether or not your ancestor was present or absent when attendance was taken. The first muster roll taken for any given regiment was the 'Muster-In Roll', when the regiment was mustered into service. These first rolls are typically the most useful for genealogists. They will give the name of your ancestor and how old they were, where they were born, their occupation, when and where they enlisted, and a physical description. If you haven't yet found this information in any other genealogical source material, Muster-In Rolls can be incredibly useful.
I already had all the genealogically-relevant information like date and place of birth, but if you are in need of this information, you might be lucky and find it on a Muster-In roll! The roll also gives a physical description of him, which can be interesting if you don't have a photo of your ancestor to refer to. Take a look at my 3rd great grandfather’s muster-in roll below.
An example of a Muster-In roll
All muster rolls after the Muster-In roll are pretty lacking in any useful information. Typically they'll only include the date and the remarks 'present' or 'absent'. So, what good are they for your genealogy research?
Well, more than you might expect!
For genealogists dedicated to mapping out their ancestor's lives, these can be incredibly helpful.
You will first have to find the regimental history of your ancestor's regiment which will give you an overview of the movements and stations during the Civil War. While muster rolls will typically only be marked “present” or “absent”, pairing them with the regimental history will tell you where exactly your ancestors were marked “present” for. For example, my ancestor was marked present from September 1863 to June 1864, but the muster rolls gave no information as to where the unit was stationed. Using the regimental history of his unit available on the National Park Service’s Civil War Battle Units page, I learned that the regiment was in Alton, Illinois from May 1863 until January 1864, and was then stationed at Rock Island, Illinois until June 1864. Using that information, I now knew where exactly my ancestor was.
But don't take regimental histories as a given. Remember, some of the muster rolls you come across could say 'absent'. Thus, it could very well be that your ancestor never made some of those movements with his regiment. For example, muster rolls indicate my ancestor was absent all of January and February 1863 (something I'll need to look into further for explanation), and during that time his regiment moved to St. Louis. And while I can't say I have this in my own family history, many men deserted their posts and went AWOL - one of them could very well have been your ancestor. So before you take those broad regimental timelines to be an accurate depiction of where your ancestor was during the Civil War, check his muster rolls first!
Finally, don't forget the Muster-Out rolls, which give the location of where your ancestor's Civil War journey officially ended. For my 3rd great grandfather, he began in Muscatine, IA and ended in Davenport, IA. And thanks to all the muster rolls in between, I can fill out the rest. In fact, I mapped my 3rd great grandfather’s entire Civil War journey using the muster rolls and regimental history:
If you want to order your ancestor’s Civil War service file, find the details on Fold3 before heading to the National Archives!
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